Keeping the Pure Blood in the Family
by Siriusly Loopy
Summary: The story of James Sirius Potter in his years at Hogwarts. Flora Longbottom belongs to SlytherinPrincess81. HP belongs to J. K. Rowling, not me. ON HIATUS! I have writer's block with this story
1. Prologue

A/N: Just something I've been trying to do for a while. Don't know how good it turned out. I hope at least a few people like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything recognizable. Flora Longbottom belongs to SlytherinPrincess82 (you can find her in Things You Don't Know About the NEXT GENERATION under "James"). That's it.

James looked incredulously down at the badge on his bedroom floor. It made no sense at all, none whatsoever. It seemed Professor McGonagall was just as insane as they said Professor Dumbledore was. But, if his grandfather could be a fabulous Head Boy, so could he. _Something_ about him had to make him fit to get the badge or McGonagall wouldn't have honored him with it. It couldn't be his devilish good looks and it couldn't be his penchant for pranking anyone in sight. Those weren't exactly Head Boy traits. His grades were very good (straight Os on his last exam and he had gotten straight Os on his O.W.L.s, too) so that might be it. Maybe he was the only extremely smart Seventh-year. Though he knew that it was highly unlikely. It wasn't the sensible thing to do, and McGonagall was the most sensible person in the world.

Now, he could imagine his brother Al becoming Head Boy next year, and he could see Lily becoming Head Girl in her Seventh-year, but _him_?

Then, still staring at the badge on the floor, he remembered the letter in his hand. Maybe that would explain the unexplainable badge. Perhaps they had sent it to the wrong person. Yes, that had to be it. Slowly, he opened up the piece of parchment and started to read it, searching fervently for an explanation. And his stomach plummeted as he saw his name at the bottom of the paper.

_Dear Mr. James Potter,_

_Your good grades and sense of leadership have led me to believe that you are the best choice for Head Boy amongst all of the Seventh-year boys. I am hoping that you will show responsibility and take the job sensibly. I find myself inclined to remind you that you are not to abuse your power on anyone, no matter what House they are in. You do have the ability to dock points and hand out detentions, however. Your pranking will, of course, have to be brought down to a minimum, as you must show a good example for the younger students. You will have no problem with exerting authority when problems arise, I believe. Also, you might want to think about keeping your friends under control as well._

_We expect you at Platform 9 3/4 on September 1__st__. You are reminded that the train leaves at exactly 11 o'clock._

_Hoping you are well,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

Minerva McGonagall Headmistress 

James blinked in surprise. He really _was_ the Head Boy. He wasn't just seeing things and it wasn't just a prank. A smile came over his face.

"Mum!" he yelled across the house. "Dad!"

He ran down to the kitchen and found them both seated at the table. His father was reading the newspaper and eating a bowl of cereal at the same time. His mother was listening to the WWN and eating a piece of toast. His brother Al was reading a book while his sister Lily flipping through a magazine. They both had a two pieces of untouched toast in front of them.

"What is it, James?" his mother asked kindly.

"I'm Head Boy!" he said excitedly.

There was an uncomfortable silence at this exclamation. Lily had dropped her magazine, Al looked up from his book (which was always a rare occurrence), and his parents just stared at him. Then, his father grinned.

"Well done, James. I have to admit that I'm not surprised. You'll be a wonderful Head Boy."

Now it was James' turn to stare. He wasn't surprised? But James was a prankster, a person who got into trouble as much as he could and caused mayhem everywhere he went. How could his father not be surprised?

"Are you sure it's not a prank, James?" Albus asked.

James shook his head. "Nope. It's got McGonagall's signature and everything. I positive it's real. Here, you can look at it."

Al took the letter in his hands and read it over. When he was finished, he nodded. "It's real," he said. And then he picked up his book again and didn't say another word.

Lily was still gaping at her oldest brother. "B – b – but you're a prankster," she managed to get out. "You'll bring down the school and send the teachers into a state of turmoil! Professor McGonagall's off her rocker! You _can't_ be Head Boy!"

James glared at her. "I won't bring down the school!" he said indignantly. "And besides, Hogwarts would be such a dreary place without any pranksters. You need pranksters to keep peoples' minds off of the real world. That's our job. And I do it pretty well, I think."

"You've definitely taken it to heart," his mother said finally. She was smiling, though, and the surprise seemed to have gone away. "I'm proud of you. It'll be a good experience."

"Thanks, Mum," he said.

He turned to his father. "Why weren't you surprised? I _am_ a prankster. Which means that I'd be one of the worst people for the job."

His father smiled. "Because my father was Head Boy in his day. And as you know, your grandfather was one of the most notorious pranksters to ever go to Hogwarts. If he could be a good Head Boy, then you could too."

James frowned. "But Uncle George wasn't Head Boy and Uncle Fred wasn't either. They were both pranksters."

"But they wouldn't have been very good for the job. They… definitely would have abused their power. If they had been given the post, they would have put every Slytherin in detention because of bad hair, or something like that. Remember, my father became an Auror, and the twins chose to run their own joke shop. Doesn't that show you anything? Pranks meant more to the twins than almost anything, except for family. Your grandfather wanted to do something active in the war, he wanted to fight the Death Eaters and put them where they belonged. He couldn't just sit back and watch others do the work. You're that same kind of person. You like to take action and do like to be a leader, and you're good at it. People listen to you, James. I think you'll make a wonderful Head Boy."

James knew that his nose had now turned pink. "Thanks, Dad," he mumbled. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm still Quidditch Captain, too."

"Good. We didn't expect anything different. You're still the best player on the team. Everybody knows that." Lily always stated the obvious.

"Lily, come on. Be nice to your brother," his mother said.

"It's fine, Mum. Really. I'm used to her by now."

Lily stuck her tongue out at him.

"That's so immature, Lily. You're acting like a baby."

Lily idolized her Aunt Hermione and was a stickler for rules. Also, as the youngest child, she always wanted to seem older than she was. Therefore, James got a well-crafted Lily-glare for his comment. She turned back to her magazine and steadfastly ignored her oldest brother for the rest of the morning.

James himself sat cheerfully down at the table and reached for a piece of toast. This Head Boy thing might not be so bad after all. His parents would be proud, all three of their children had straight O grades and would become Head Boy or Girl in their Seventh-year. It would probably make his Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron immensely jealous. Rose was definitely on her way to becoming Head Girl, but Hugo was not as good in his classes as his sister, nor was he Head Boy material. He was incredibly shy and hated being in control. Yes, his Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron would probably think that McGonagall had gone bonkers, too. So would everyone else in his family for that matter. But that was fine with James. He knew that it was real, and he was definitely going to have fun this year. He had heard that the common room for the Heads was extremely comfortable.


	2. Head Girl

A/N: Many thanks for AJ for editing this, I hope she'll keep editing all of my stories. You rock AJ! smiles Also, Flora does not belong to me, she belongs to SlytherinPrincess82 (thank you sooooooo much for letting me use her!) and you can find her in the story Things You Don't Know About the NEXT GENERATION. So, I hope you enjoy!

James took a deep breath as he stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. He wanted to find his best friends, Conor Finnigan and Brier Thomas. They had to be on here somewhere. Usually, they were in the last compartment of the train, so he had a ways to go yet. He was nervous about how they would react to his getting the Head Boy position. They had made an oath together in first year, that none of them would become an authority figure. He had now successfully broken that oath in one of the worst possible ways. But he could make this work for them; they could get into _less_ trouble, but do _more_ stuff. And it would be good pranking. That was the only kind they ever did. It _helped_ the students it didn't _hinder_ them. And he knew that Sprout understood that.

The other good thing about being at Hogwarts was that he was able to see Flora Longbottom again. Flora Longbottom was in his year, with sandy blonde hair cut short like a boy's. She was fairly tall at 6', but James had the honor of being taller than she was at 6' 3". Her eyes were a beautiful sort-of blue-violet. _She_ was beautiful, in every way.

He had noticed her in his fifth year, and had immediately thought that she would be the one for him, however, prankster that he was, he hadn't yet plucked up the courage to ask her out. She was the most amazing girl in the world (in James' opinion), but she was not known for being kind to boys who asked her out. Most of them were hexed, if they were lucky. If they weren't lucky, they were slapped and humiliated in front of the entire school. And Flora Longbottom could hit… _hard_. He didn't want to get on her bad side. So, he would wait until the opportune moment.

Quidditch would be starting up again, too, and that was definitely something to look forward to. As one of the best chasers in the school, with the best team ever, he was almost expecting to see Gryffindor getting the Quidditch Cup for the sixth year in a row. The other three teams were starting to get more aggressive now that Slytherin wasn't on the top. A game against Hufflepuff was no longer a pushover and the Ravenclaw team had some pretty good players. Slytherin didn't play dirtily anymore, but they had some strong flyers and desperately wanted to win. James would have to work hard to win the Quidditch Cup this year. He especially was looking forward to it, because Flora was the Seeker for Gryffindor, much to her father's delight. Fred Weasley II, James' cousin, was a beater along with Conor. Brier was another chaser and a third year girl named Blaire Stevens (she was even better than Brier sometimes) was the last chaser. John Wood, who was in Lily's year (as well as the bane of her existence), was their Keeper. As far as James was concerned, Gryffindor had the best team in existence.

As he walked into the last compartment on the train, he breathed a sigh of relief. Brier and Conor were both in there.

"Hey," Conor said as he came in. "We saved you a seat. What took you so long?"

Brier smiled mischievously. "Were you trying to find Miss Longbottom? Thinking of asking her out already?"

James grimaced. "No. I'd be in the Hospital Wing for a week and I'd like to keep peace within the Quidditch team if you don't mind."

Brier and Conor both laughed. "Don't worry, we'd keep her from killing you," Conor said mock-seriously.

James made a face at them. He cleared his throat and then said, "Er – do either of you know when the Prefects go to their compartment and meet the Head Boy and Girl?"

His friends stared at him suspiciously. "Five minutes after the whistles blows," Conor replied. "Why? You haven't become an authority figure, have you?"

James felt his nose go pink again. He pulled out his Head Boy badge and passed it to them. They looked at speechlessly for a while and then Brier gave it back to him.

"Sure it wasn't a prank?" he said.

James shook his head. "My entire family looked at the letter and confirmed that it was definitely not a fake. Dad checked the badge, too, just in case."

Brier and Conor nodded solemnly. "You've just broken our oath," Conor said softly. "You know what this means, don't you?"

James gulped. "Er – expulsion from pranking?" he said hesitantly.

Conor rolled his eyes. "No, you idiot," he said. "It means you get to let us get away with everything. You can't make us stop. That's our rule."

"Yeah," Brier said, "no becoming a complete rule-abider. Then we _would_ have to expel you from pranking. And you don't want that, do you?"

James grinned and breathed a sigh of relief. "No. Of course I won't turn you guys in. Not unless you do something extremely, ultimately stupid. Or you betray me and start hanging out with the Slytherins."

All three of them laughed.

James took a deep breath as he walked into the Prefects' compartment. This was going to be challenging. He knew that Albus would be there, but other than that, he didn't think he'd know anybody. Maybe Al could help him out.

Everyone in the compartment looked up at him as he walked in. There were nine people in there, including his brother (of course), his cousin Rose, Belle Thomas (Brier's twin), Maggie Olson (the older sister of one of his sister's friends), and Flora. Then there were two prefects from each of the other houses.

"What are you doing here Potter?" a Slytherin sixth-year asked.

"Er – I…" James gulped before he said quietly, "I'm Head Boy. And it's not a prank, nor am I lying. I brought the letter if any of you need confirmation." His nose was definitely bright red.

"I don't think we'll need that," his brother said. "I can vouch for him. I saw the letter myself and it was definitely Professor Sprout's signature. Father checked the badge, as well, and it's not a fake. James is our new Head Boy this year."

James sent him a look of gratitude. Al smiled reassuringly back. "So – er, who's the Head Girl?"

"I am," Flora said. James couldn't believe his luck. Flora herself didn't seem too pleased with the arrangements.

"Congratulations," James said as politely as he could. He then sat himself down between Rose and Al, who had conveniently made a space for him.

"So," Flora started, "now that everyone is here, we can start. For the new fifth-year prefects," she turned to look at James with a smug look, "and our new Head Boy, I will explain the rules. There is to be no abusing the power you have now. Prefects, you can dock points but cannot give detentions. Potter, you _can_ give detentions, but sparingly. You may _only_ take off points for rule-breaking. Rule-breaking compromises of fighting, Muggle or magical, pranking, stealing, bullying, or causing general mayhem. Detentions can be given out at the same time, but are usually for more serious offenses. Do be reasonable when you dock points. Please try to use your voice to break up fights or mobs, but if that doesn't work than you are allowed to shoot sparks into the air to get everyone's attention. The Head Boy and I will give you the passwords for the bathrooms and common rooms individually. We will hand out schedules for prefect meetings at dinner tonight. That should be it. Patrol the train regularly and _with someone else_. You are _not_ to patrol on your own. Now, off you go. Potter, could you stay for a second please?"

James nodded. He was more than happy to stay with Flora. At least he had a reason, so she couldn't hit or hex him for staying with her alone. When everyone was gone (including Al, Rose, and Belle) he turned to smile at her. Most girls giggled and smiled back, but Flora just raised an eyebrow.

"I just wanted to make sure that you know that you _cannot_ take points off of the Slytherins for things like bad hair or ugly faces. You cannot provoke them into doing things wrong and you had better be responsible about giving out detentions and taking points or you will have _me_ to answer to James Potter."

With that said, she marched out of the compartment without once glancing back. James stared after her for what seemed like hours. She was so beautiful when she was fired up. Then, he shook his head to clear it, and walked back to the compartment to his friends.


End file.
